Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Who's the Real Liar?

Mr. Wilson was embraced by many because he was early in publicly charging that the Bush administration had "twisted," if not invented, facts in making the case for war against Iraq. In conversations with journalists or in a July 6, 2003, op-ed, he claimed to have debunked evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger; suggested that he had been dispatched by Mr. Cheney to look into the matter; and alleged that his report had circulated at the highest levels of the administration.

A bipartisan investigation by the Senate intelligence committee subsequently established that all of these claims were false -- and that Mr. Wilson was recommended for the Niger trip by Ms. Plame, his wife. When this fact, along with Ms. Plame's name, was disclosed in a column by Robert D. Novak, Mr. Wilson advanced yet another sensational charge: that his wife was a covert CIA operative and that senior White House officials had orchestrated the leak of her name to destroy her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson.

The partisan furor over this allegation led to the appointment of special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Yet after two years of investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald charged no one with a crime for leaking Ms. Plame's name.

In fact, it's worth asking: Where's Richard Armitage? While all the Democrats have a field day denouncing the Bush White House, it seems the one person who's absolved of all condemnation is the person who actually disclosed Valerie Plame's name. So was Libby's real crime -- as far as Democrats are concerned -- that he discussed Valerie Plame, or that he had the nerve to attack Joe Wilson, proven liar?

THIS jury found him guilty. Would any other? It's my understanding that a juror was removed for having read a book about spying. Yet the author of the book was on the jury. That would be the WaPo journalist Dennis Collins, I believe his name was. A couple other members were equally fishy for being allowed to serve. But in any case, a conviction doesn't necessarily mean Libby's a liar here. Don't tell me you've never heard of someone being wrongly convicted before. Happens too often. Happened here.

All that happened here is that some Bush haters got to convict someone from the administration of something. It didn't matter what or who, thought they would definitely prefer someone more notable. Can you say "kangaroo court"?